Best Driver for GTX 980

I would like to know, in my case that I have a GTX 980, if it is always better to install the latest driver available, or would you have a driver indication for the GTX 980? Because it is an older series.

I bet you don't even own a 980 series anymore and haven't even tested this. I'm using the latest as it supports 8bit + dithering HDR which the 388.59 doesn't support. But let's say your right, then there is no point in this forum and your just as sad as everyone else, by commenting on it.

I bet you don't even own a 980 series anymore and haven't even tested this. I'm using the latest as it supports 8bit + dithering HDR which the 388.59 doesn't support. But let's say your right, then there is no point in this forum and your just as sad as everyone else, by commenting on it.

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It generally is placebo.

Many people claim that newer drivers have worse performance but benchmarks prove that to be incorrect

****Sorry we are closing this forum, the latest driver is always the best, and if it isn't, it's a problem with your computer (or all in your imagination), so if everyone can just go away, and play some games instead. Thank you everyone for your participation*****

****Sorry we are closing this forum, the latest driver is always the best, and if it isn't, it's a problem with your computer (or all in your imagination), so if everyone can just go away, and play some games instead. Thank you everyone for your participation*****

Idk, you may have to try different control panel or inspector settings for your games/apps with the latest 398 drivers.
On the hotfix for example, vsync on in nvcpl crashes Witcher 3 for me, whilst using in game fps limit 60.
Force off vsync alone and the issue goes away.Older drivers now have the same issue, so I'm blaming Win10.....again.

RodroG on Reddit seems to have done a lot of benchmarking and doesn't agree. His recommended driver for Pascal is 391.35.

Is it so far out to consider that an older driver may suite older hardware better? Benchmarks focus on maximum FPS and sometimes minimum FPS. My focus is which driver is best at holding vsync at a constant 60fps and I tune the graphics settings with this in mind. I find more frames are dropped with latest driver, I'm only talking slight drops down to 57fps where 388.59 will hold 60 or 59fps. I guess most people wouldn't notice and maybe benchmarks are missing this as they are normally using current gen hardware.

Driver's behavior includes a lot of parameters like stability, quality, features or efficiency. Performance alone is not enough to classify a driver better than another. Latest is always the all-round winner. If you are feeling restless due to a couple of frames loss test yourself.

RodroG on Reddit seems to have done a lot of benchmarking and doesn't agree. His recommended driver for Pascal is 391.35.

Is it so far out to consider that an older driver may suite older hardware better? Benchmarks focus on maximum FPS and sometimes minimum FPS. My focus is which driver is best at holding vsync at a constant 60fps and I tune the graphics settings with this in mind. I find more frames are dropped with latest driver, I'm only talking slight drops down to 57fps where 388.59 will hold 60 or 59fps. I guess most people wouldn't notice and maybe benchmarks are missing this as they are normally using current gen hardware.

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Why don't you try it yourself?

It's pretty easy to run a benchmark a few times and average the .1%, 1% avg and max FPS and compare it to another driver.

And no, older drivers aren't going to be inherently worse unless there is a specific profile issue.

Games that are old enough have been using the same profile for a long time so reverting from a new driver to an older one won't make any difference.

I tried to googled it. Would be interesting to see how older and newer drivers affect 900 series and 10series. Like, if one is good use it as reference. Keep couple of good ones and compare maybe few of the latest. Could be interesting to see, or boring asf.

Gtx 980 user here...Always use latest driver as stated above from other members, I use to back in the day wonder about stuff like this but then Life happend haha. As long as you dont have any issues New is better.